Speaking to sitting tenants during a meeting in Gulu City on Tuesday, Ampaire says the corporation is facing challenges of accumulated rent arrears arising out of illegal subletting of their units.
The Uganda Railways Corporation
(URC) officials have cautioned sitting tenants on the corporation’s estate in
Gulu City against subletting rental units.
Mercy Ampaire, the Principal
Property Management Officer at URC says the corporation has established that a
number of the tenants have sublet their rentals to other tenants and making a profit
out of it illegally.
At least 52 Tenants are occupying
the URC estate at Upper Railways Quarter in Bardege-Layibi Division in Gulu
City.
Speaking to sitting tenants
during a meeting in Gulu City on Tuesday, Ampaire says the corporation
is facing challenges of accumulated rent arrears arising out of illegal subletting
of their units.
Ampaire says they have discovered
that some tenants who sublet their units charge between 150,000 to
200,000 Shillings monthly in rent, yet URC charges only 40,000 Shillings.
According to her, despite the tenants who call themselves landlords receiving payments
from subtenants, they don’t remit the money to the government.
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She notes that those subletting
their rental units are illegally extorting money from other people arguing that
those implicated will be prosecuted in courts of law.
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Tuesday’s meeting was convened
by URC officials following protests by sitting tenants at Upper Railways
Quarter a month ago who accused URC of enforcing the collection of accumulated
arrears without a formal tenancy agreement. URC officials accompanied by Police officers
early last month stormed the tenants demanding 1.4 million shillings from each
tenant in rent arrears for the last three years.
At the meeting, Florence Acan,
the Chairperson of the sitting tenants noted that the majority of the tenants had
been stopped from paying rent from 2013 by URC officials at the time the corporation
intended to privatize its property. She says even when URC started demanding payments,
no formal demand notices along with tenancy agreements were issued to tenants indicating
terms and conditions.
“We had no problems with payments
but it was URC officials who stopped us from paying rent. We were harassed last
month by URC officials and police over arrears yet there wasn’t any official
communication,” She said.
During the same meeting, subtenants
also raised complaints of paying exorbitant rent fees to official tenants known
by URC officials. For instance, Suzan Atimango, one of the new tenants on the
estate says she has been paying her two-roomed housing unit at 150,000
shillings and alleged that her landlady has been harassing her while demanding the payment.
Maj. Twaha Kabuye, a Legal
Officer at URC however says such payments were being made illegally and warned
that it must stop with immediate effect.
“If you move out and sublet your
housing unit, your tenancy with the corporation ceases. The corporation doesn’t
entertain subletting,” Maj. Kabuye told the tenants.
Responding to the complaints of the
tenancy agreement, Maj. Kabuye says the corporation was already in the process
of drafting a tenancy agreement that will soon be issued to tenants after
screening.
Kamba Amiri, the Deputy Resident
City Commissioner in charge of Bardege-Layibi Division however faulted URC
officials for failing to work with stakeholders in the city in implementing the
enforcement of arrears collection.
Amiri tasked on the URC officials to
expedite the process of formalizing tenancy agreements with the tenants to
address the current confusion between the tenants and the URC.
URC currently owns residential
properties and spaces on an estimated 28 acres of land in Gulu City.
